The National Arts Festival and Business and Arts South Africa have just announced the winners of the 2015 Arts Journalism Awards in Johannesburg.
Among the websites and blogs awarded this year, were LitNet, The Con, Africa Is A Country, The Critter and Books LIVE. City Press was given the overall Gold Media Organisation Award, the prize for which is a scholarship for one of their journalists to take part in the Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF) Arts Journalism Course in early 2016. Other traditional publications such as Mail & Guardian and Sunday Times also dominated the final winners list.
LitNet reviewer Maryke Roberts was awarded a silver medal in the category: reviews for her writing on theatre in South Africa (written in Afrikaans):
• Alles wat jy van War Horse moet weet
• Teaterresensie: Wie's bang vir Virginia Woolf?
More than 100 entries were received for the Awards, a “significant” increase on previous years, a figure that was described by the National Arts Festival as conveners of the Awards as “heartening”.
Commenting on the entries received, convener of the judging panel Gwen Ansell said: “The range of writers, and the depth and commitment of the content, has been impressive. In a time when newsrooms are faced with shrinking resources, it’s been encouraging to see how some newsrooms still make the effort to source original, high-quality arts writing. In addition, we’re increasingly seeing relevant issues being raised by distinctive individual voices on blogs and websites.”
“Journalists help us contextualise, understand, reflect on and make sense of the work of our artists and of the industry as a whole,” Festival CEO Tony Lankester said. “We need strong journalism to be recognised as something that underpins and gives meaning to what we do – through these awards we want to acknowledge those journalists who critically engage with the sector and not just who act as praise singers. Although giving praise where it is due is also welcomed!” he said.
The National Arts Festival and Business and Arts South Africa conceptualised and launched the Awards in 2013 to acknowledge some of the excellent work being done by arts journalists in newsrooms across the country.
The post Silver for LitNet at Arts Journalism Awards appeared first on LitNet.